I just saw this online and thought that I would post it here so that everyone can see it. The technique that this man is using is interesting...... What do the rest of you guys think about it, as neither himself or the person recording really seemed to be all that worried?

I toured Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Holland in the late 1980's and observed this everywhere. It is (at least then) standard practice.

The couplings usually aren't that hard/drastic, but they can be. I saw gentle couplings with loco attached as well as "kicked" cars and cuts of cars. This video is of kicked cars in a station/yard, and is only slightly faster than normal.

The brakeman has to "catch" the car with the link before the sprung buffers cause the car(s) to bounce away.

hullmat991

Post subject: Re: German railway coupling technique

Posted: Mon Sep 25, 2017 8:59 pm

Joined: Sun Dec 28, 2014 11:12 pmPosts: 128

I wonder why this system of couplers (hook and hoop) with buffers is so widespread while here (at least in Mexico, Canada, USA) in the Western Hemisphere we use knuckle couplers without the buffers. What are the disadvantages and advantages to each system?

Pat Fahey

Post subject: Re: German railway coupling technique

Posted: Mon Sep 25, 2017 9:22 pm

Joined: Fri Mar 18, 2005 1:27 pmPosts: 427Location: Milford,Mass

A good way to get yourself killed, what would happen if he slid under a car, etc, just plain stupid. Ya laugh now, but you could die later.

Mark Jordan

Post subject: Re: German railway coupling technique

Posted: Mon Sep 25, 2017 9:27 pm

Joined: Fri Nov 07, 2008 11:21 amPosts: 401

Quote:

I wonder why this system of couplers (hook and hoop) with buffers is so widespread while here (at least in Mexico, Canada, USA) in the Western Hemisphere we use knuckle couplers without the buffers.

I asked this question when I was there. The answer (then) was that the various countries would not fund the massive rolling stock conversion. These cars are interchanged across national borders, and getting everyone to put up the $$$ was the issue.

Bartman-TN

Post subject: Re: German railway coupling technique

Posted: Mon Sep 25, 2017 9:37 pm

Joined: Tue Jul 02, 2013 10:45 pmPosts: 145

The technique is fairly standard, but the coupling speed is way more than normal. It looks like they were having a contest to see who could do it with the highest speed. Probably why it was filmed and everyone was laughing.

This coupling technique is designed for much lighter loads. It is simply a chain and hooks system, with the buffers used to keep the cars apart. Crews routinely stand between the buffers for slow speed coupling. Makes me shiver when I'm there until I get used to it again.

Safety standards vary greatly from place to place. Many European countries have track crews working in shorts and tennis shoes (safety orange at least), and third world countries seldom have any standards. I've seen sandals and shorts for brakemen who still run the roof of cars.

The linked You Tube video may lead to another of the coupling of an Indian electric loco to a passenger train. The engine has knuckle couplers, but with extra holes for an adapter screw link to the Brittish standard hook on the train.

M Austin

Post subject: Re: German railway coupling technique

Posted: Tue Sep 26, 2017 12:35 am

Joined: Sat Feb 05, 2005 1:05 amPosts: 416

Philippines are more civilized except for the scarcity of brake hoses.

I agree that there seems to have been some sort of horseplay going on in that first video.

When I first saw that video, I looked up videos of various coupling systems used around the world, just to learn more about them. There are a lot of places that use buffer and chain. From what I saw, in most cases, it seems that, when coupling a locomotive to cars, either: 1). the driver/engineer will buffer up to the cars and compress the buffers, then the guy working the ground goes in between/into the red zone, etc, and couples the car/laces up the brake hoses, or: 2). The guy working the ground stands inside the gauge, in between the buffers of the car to be coupled to. The driver/engineer buffers up to the cars, and the guy working the ground can just drop the chain onto the hook as the buffers compress.

I've never been over there to witness their use in person, and I've definitely never seen switching done in person with these couplers. I know that a "shunters pole" could be used to couple cars while remaining in the clear, but thats a big piece of equipment to carry with you all day, so maybe they're seen as too inconvenient. It seems that, like with most all heavy equipment, there are best practices and bad practices, safe ways of doing things and unsafe ways. One thing that seems obvious to me is that it's still safer than the old link and pin couplers, but even with the link and pins, there's safe(r) ways to work with them.

I do know that there's one slick hook made in the movie "Von Ryan's Express", when the Nazi Officer's private car is coupled to the prison train. It'll probably make you cringe if you're used to knuckle couplers.

The movie "The Train", set and filmed in France, shows a slow speed version of this kind of coupling, and in another scene, how a spring buffer can break off when the collision speed is higher.

PaulWWoodring

Post subject: Re: German railway coupling technique

Posted: Wed Sep 27, 2017 2:59 pm

Joined: Fri Aug 27, 2004 4:02 pmPosts: 1127Location: Back in NE Ohio

Don't show either video to Hunter Harrison, you're liable to give him ideas...

QJdriver

Post subject: Re: German railway coupling technique

Posted: Wed Sep 27, 2017 3:35 pm

Joined: Sun Sep 05, 2004 9:48 amPosts: 551Location: Byers, Colorado

I made videos of the last plantation railroaders in Louisiana talking about coupling with link and pin couplings, using only a handbrake on the locomotive, with no brakes of any kind on the cars. They assured me that the only safe way to couple with this arrangement is to hold the link up with a stick, and keep both feet outside the rail !!! (Too bad there was so little interest in the videos --- coulda, woulda, shoulda)

They assured me that the only safe way to couple with this arrangement is to hold the link up with a stick, and keep both feet outside the rail !!! (Too bad there was so little interest in the videos --- coulda, woulda, shoulda)

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